Upstarts
by Covviz
Summary: 2257 CE. Citadel Space is going through an era of stagnation, but also one of relative peace and stability... Until a major faux pas by the Batarian Hegemony threatens to plunge it and a new galactic power into an all-out war, one which could bring an end to the peace which the Council has been trying so hard to uphold.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: The Deep Breath**

* * *

 **Mars, 2030**

"Well… This is obviously an artificial structure. It's not ours." Carlos Morales stated, while closely staring at the entrance. He was a tall man, with a pale white skin and light brown eyes. His family had mostly descended from Spaniard colonizers, hence his name.

The entrance looked like an airlock, it was previously buried by sand but in the past few weeks Carlos and other astronauts were quick to remove any sand blocking the entrance. Now, it was time to investigate.

"Is this a work of the Chinese? Maybe the Indians?" Muhammad Salib suggested, he got closer to the door to examine it. Muhammad was a short person, with an olive-coloured skin and dark hair. His eyes were of a deep brown colour, and he had an oriental nose.

Muhammad touched the entrance and it subsequently opened, this caused sand to slide and both men to fall down into the structure. "Crap!" he yelled in surprise, as this happened.

After falling, both astronauts started checking their suits looking for a puncture or any damage. None found.

"What the hell is this?" Carlos raised his voice in question, as he came into the room with many monitors. In the centre, there was a metal box with a crystal orb in the middle.

"By Allah…" Muhammad mumbled to himself while looking at the orb, while he himself was not a man of faith (Actually an atheist by definition) he had been raised on a conservative Muslim household and such expression had stuck with him.

"Don't touch that, Muhammad! You will trigger something el-" Carlos was interrupted as a green fog started to form over the Crystal Orb. Muhammad had kept his hands for himself, without triggering anything. This was something which had activated without the interference of either man in the room.

The fog dissipated and a vaguely humanoid figure appeared. It had a triangular head with a large crest and four eyes, it was a hologram rather than a true xeno. Its features were somewhat insectoid and reptilian. Some sort of green light scanned the two men very quickly, and this figure spoke in an unbroken English.

"Pressurizing of the room, initiated." The alien figure said as the airlock closed. Carlos turned his head and was near-panicking as his only way out was closed. "You may take off your helmets." Both men didn't dare to expose themselves to the room's air, though.

Muhammad, meanwhile, was closely analysing the figure whose image was reflecting on his brown eyes. "Who are you?" He asked, and turned on his recording device.

"There's no need to record this conversation, your people will be free to access any and all files from this terminal." The Prothean hologram spoke. "Addressing your question, I am a Prothean Virtual Intelligence. My name is Decadence. I was designed to make interaction with this platform and this information easier."

"Can we get out?" Carlos almost pleaded, while still sitting down as he was too weak to stand up.

"Of course, the controls for the airlock are still fully functional. I will teach you how to use them shortly." Decadence stated.

"An Artificial Intelligence? This means that you are a fully self-aware machine?" Muhammad inquired, still keeping a calm stance.

"No. I am a Virtual Intelligence. While I can hold a conversation, I am not self-aware. I was merely designed help organic users with the purpose of processing and accessing data. Research on Artificial Intelligence was banned by the Prothean Empire after the Metacon War." Decadence explained. "In these archives, they key to interstellar travel is held. I am programmed to facilitate the adaptation of this technology into human designs... And to warn you of an incoming threat."

"A threat?"

"Most data about them has been corrupted… Organic input will be needed to attempt to decode and obtain information about this threat… From what remains, information about the threat is labelled under the name 'Reapers'."

* * *

 **Avatar System, Systems Alliance, 2257, April 1st**

The name of the frontier colony in the system was Pandora, an Earth-like moon orbiting a gas giant. It was called like this by the captain who discovered it, the man himself was a snob obsessed with ancient movies nobody cared about at this point, so he named it after a vaguely similar planet from a personal favourite of his. Some vid called "Avatar".

Originally, this would have been like any other frontier world, quiet and steadily growing. But the discovery of a new Mass Relay had put everybody on standby as they prepared to open it.

Pandora… Such a fitting name for the current situation, if one knew the legend about Pandora's Box (It was actually a jar… But that is beside the point). Pandora was given a container, she was told not to open it. In it one could find all the ills that would fall upon mankind, she in her endless curiosity didn't listen to what the Gods had told her and freed all evil upon the Human world…

Ever since the discovery of the archives in 2030 and the formation of the now-defunct United Nations Space Agency (UNSA), humanity had been spreading recklessly through space. Opening any Mass Relay they found without any regard. This has lead them to find intelligent alien life, in the form of two pre-spaceflight species which had been uplifted, annexed and turned into "Associate Species" of humanity.

There was no hiding to the fact. Every time the Alliance entered a new relay, there was this danger of finding another interstellar civilization. One equal or superior in technology to humanity, which wouldn't necessarily have to be friendly. This was a fear that baffled many scientists, but didn't deter the pioneers who demanded more and more relays to be opened in order to get away of the Core Worlds.

"Commander Rynkor, a pleasure to meet you." Captain James Shepard of the ASV Prometheus, one of the Alliance's Gerald-class Frigates extended his hand to greet the massive figure which was wearing Alliance colours. It was alien, of course, having four pairs of eyes and teeth that looked as if they could maul over anything that crossed their way. Pretty average for a Yahg, really.

The Yahg readily took James' hand, while giving him and toothy smile that would intimidate anybody who was not used to dealing with the species in question. "The pleasure is mine, Captain Shepard! You have a hell of a career record, pretty good job you did against those pirates five years ago."

"The same goes to you, Commander. I heard you… Bit off the head of some human-trafficker?" James asked, as the two men started walking in the street towards a shuttle which was a few hundred meters away.

Rynkor cringed at the memory. "Yes… I was being shot at, and my mind just went blank for a second. I got to say, human taste is disgusting." He chuckled.

They finally reached the shuttle and boarded it as if it was any other day, oblivious of what was about to happen, preparations had to be made for the opening of this Mass Relay.

* * *

 **A few hours later…**

"Where are we now?" Captain James Shepard asked, greeted by the sight of another system. There was a garden world in front of him. "That will be an interesting prospect for colonization once we go back home."

"There's yet another Mass Relay in this system." Navigator Tasar Sarmaer, a young-looking Raloi, told him. The Raloi were a bipedal, fully sapient avian species coming from Turvess. Much to humanity's amusements, they looked like Parrots.

"Get us in, plot an in-system FTL jump." Just as Shepard gave the order, the Eezo drive charged and they reappeared in front of the relay after a mild shaking. "Standard procedure, activate the Relay."

* * *

 **Dalo's Might, Batarian Cruiser**

"What are these fools trying to do!?" Balak demanded at the Asari slave who stood before him, she just bowed and gave him the datapad with the readings.

"Master, the reports show that this fledging species seeks to activate the Mass Relay…"

Balak just signalled the Asari to walk away, to which she quickly and fearfully complied. The Batarian Admiral thoughtfully stared at the datapad, reading it several times over.

"Orders? We cannot let them open the Relay, another Rachni threat may fall upon the galaxy!"

This got the Admiral out of his thoughts, instead just sitting back on his chair. "That is true. Fleet, fire at will, perhaps they will become good, obedient slaves once we are done."

This was a golden opportunity. This mission, which had merely started as yet another scouting mission for colonization, could turn into much more than that. The conquest of a species, using its world, people and resources to make them subservient to the Batarians. He smiled at the thought of a potential implications of him being the one to bring this new species to fold, perhaps a bright political career would follow.

As the mass accelerator rounds hit the pathetic frigate, it tried to escape back to the Mass Relay which had probably brought them in.

"Let them go, and track them. I want to know exactly where they came from." Balak ordered, and the small fleet of four cruisers and 8 frigates stopped in unison.

* * *

 **Codex Updated: The Yahg Annexation**

In the year 2100, the United Nations Space Agency (UNSA) discovered a pre-spaceflight species which was going through the advancement of a mid-to-late 20th-century civilization, they were called the "Yahg" and inhabited a garden world they dubbed Parnack. Rather than immediately initiate first contact, the government of the United Nations classified the discovery and created a task force to assess potential threats for human existence. The name of this top-secret international organization was "Cerberus".

Cerberus, shortly after its creation, was quickly given the assignment of studying and determining the potential threat Yahg posed for continued human existence, if they ever developed spaceflight abilities. Luckily for Humanity, and unluckily for the Yahg, an event would turn the tables to the United Nations' favour.

In the 4th of November, 2105, the Yahg bombed their own planet with nuclear fire. In the following months, hundreds of millions died through war, riots, radiation, nuclear winter, famine and other evils. The UNSA patiently waited as they gathered a large fleet at the orbit of Parnack and finally initiated first contact, already having an upper advantage due to the knowledge they had acquired about the species over five years and Parnack's state.

Yahg culture itself operates in an idea of pack mentality, in which a group of Yahg will refuse to cooperate until a leader establishes themselves through either brute force, political or social maneuvering. Once they did, though, they shown an astounding loyalty to their leader. Not holding a grudge, and finally cooperating. Cerberus predicted that attempting a peaceful contact as equals and friends would be disastrous.

The UNSA, aware of Yahg nature thanks to Cerberus' studies, went in on a display of force through Parnack. In a matter of days, all important industrial, military and economic centres were captured by the Human Military. The leaders of all Yahg nations were gathered and given two options: Either join humanity as an Associate Species, or be left to perish.

The Yahg, seeing how they had no hope of defeating a military centuries ahead in advancement, yielded. As soon as they did, though, terraforming stations were quickly placed to clean Parnack's atmosphere and hunger issues were taken care of.

The UNSA's decisions had very mixed reactions, ranging from praising due to saving a dying species and eliminating a future potential rival to riots on the streets opposing "Human Imperialism".

Parnack's nation-states were dissolved, a sole government was placed to serve as the planetary administration which would answer to the UNSA, as other colonial governments did.

In the coming years, Yahg culture, literature, art and science would be revolutionized thanks to their new human benefactors. The people of Parnack had been spared from extinction.

* * *

 **Codex Updated: Raloi Integration**

In the year 2125 an UNSA scout stumbled upon a bipedal species of avian people inhabiting their Homeworld named Turvess. This species in question had the term "Raloi" to refer to themselves. The scout ship witnessed from a safe distance as the species launched its first satellite.

Once again, Cerberus went to work for several years on the study of this species and discerning whether or not they were a potential threat and determining how would first contact come to occur.

Gladly, this was much more peaceful than the situation with the Yahg. The United Nations of Earth sent a delegation, in order to greet the new species and "offer" to give them the key to interstellar travel if they became an Associate species of humanity. This process took a decade of intense negotiations and treaties, but eventually the Raloi acquiesced, noting human insistence and the vast difference in the military capabilities.

Reactions on Earth were more positive than the last time, and the diplomats were praised for their ability to negotiate without such a direct display of brute force as it occurred in Parnack. Years later, the Raloi would to go through a renaissance much as the Yahg were doing.

* * *

 **Codex Updated: The United Nations Space Agency**

Now defunct, the United Nations Space Agency (UNSA for short), was the organization which handled human colonization, exploration and military efforts in the stars. It was founded in the year 2035, shortly after the United States' discovery on Mars and lasted for over a century until the year 2157.

The organization is noted for its efforts in safeguarding humanity's place on the stars during its early stages of exploration. It was the UNSA which lobbied for the founding of Cerberus, and went on with the annexation of the Raloi and Yahg peoples into Mankind's Stellar Empire to prevent any future competitors in colonization.

From the start, the organization was riddled with contradictions. The colonies it settled were not governed by locals, but rather by unelected governors sent from Earth. This would sow the seeds for rebellion, as many colonies seceded in what would be known as the disastrous "Frontier War" (2143-2157).

The war would be brutal from the start, and the UNSA's reactions on putting down the revolts just as harsh. In the last few years, as all colonies were about to be pacified, rebel ships were able to attack the Sol System. Even though they were quickly dealt with by the defence force, a mass accelerator round was able to escape from the enemy ships…

It, accidentally, hit Earth… Right on the Yellowstone volcano.

The chaos that ensued on Terra would scar it forever. Tension between the planet's nation-states rose to the point of nuclear war. In an ironic turn of events, Earth would have the same fate as Parnack did. The UNSA military would have to come down and force a military occupation in the planet. Then emergency re-terraformation would have to ensue.

The Frontier War was won, at a steep price. All leaders of the UNSA would be court martialed and dishonorably discharged. The United Nations Space Agency, even though making great contributions to Humankind, was considered to have gone rogue. It was promptly dissolved.

A new government body was made, calling itself the "Systems Alliance", all planets within it were given a parliament vote and the ability to elect their local assemblies. Their peoples' votes would also counted when electing positions such as the Chairman of the Systems Alliance, leader of all of Humanity and her Associate Species. The UNSA Military was abolished, then reorganized into the Alliance Military.

Earth was now under full control of the Alliance, like any other colony world. It was decided that nation-states in it would be ended as they posed a risk to stability within human space. Instead, the "Terran Assembly" would be created as Earth's local government (Which would operate in a manner much similar to any other of the Alliance's Colonies).

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **This story was done with one purpose in mind: Trying to explain the Alliance's role in the galaxy during the game. This is because, by sheer numbers and common sense, a species like Humanity wouldn't be expected to have much of a say in galactic politics, much less gain enough economic and military power to challenge the fourth most powerful species in Citadel Space (The Batarians) so quickly.**

 **The function of this story will be to strengthen humanity in order to make this possible, to justify its primordial role in galactic politics during the Reaper Saga.**

 **This time, the Council won't establish contact with a small species barely into colonization… But with a large Multi-Species Empire with two centuries of experience in space travel and an extensive Military (Not enough to rival a council species… For now. But definitively comparable to the Hegemony in its size). And when the Reapers attack Earth, they will find out that attacking the homeworld won't be such a crippling move against the Alliance as it was in the canon (Partly because of the extensive colonization of other worlds, and partly because the Frontier War lead to quite a decline on Earth's population...)**

 **That said… There will be other changes I want to make to this universe, first contact with the Batarians rather than Turians was one of them. You shall see.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Pandora's Box**

* * *

 **April 1st, 2257 CE**

Alliance forces in the Avatar System and its colony in the Earth-like moon named Pandora were outnumbered, somewhat pathetically. The enemy fleet consisted of around two cruiser-analogues and five frigate-analogues. At its disposal, the defending fleet was of around two frigates (one of which took severe damage by the unknown aliens in the bordering system, so it would be more accurate to say the garrison had one frigate) and twenty five fighters. James Shepard and the surviving members of his crew were now in the ground at Pandora.

James Shepard had managed to miraculously rescue all of his crew and get off the system through fire of a superior force. It felt as if the enemy had let him go, Shepard suspected… To which he was right, it had only been a couple hours after evacuating out of the damaged frigate and right at this very moment the scanners detected the powering up of the Mass Relay leading to the uninhabited system in which he had found the aliens.

The Captain of the remaining frigate on the void, a Raloi who went by the name of Wyn Loratoris, stood defiant as the numerically superior invader fleet approached Pandora and started powering up their mass accelerator canons.

"What do we do, Captain? We're severely outnumbered, there's no way to escape either!" Asked his human Specialist, Charles Carter.

The Raloi captain stood silent for a few seconds, as he just stared at the enemy fleet.

"Captain?"

"I want each and every fighter in the void to provide temporary cover, then run back to support the airfields of Pandora as soon as we are done. Those in the Engineering room, they must get the Eezo core to critical stages. Navigator, plot a course towards the cruiser flagship." Everyone in the room stood silent, as the realization of what they were about to do sunk in. "This fleet is already lost. We have to make as much damage to these bastards so the colony can hold out while reinforcements arrive… Brothers and sisters, it was an honour serving with you." He saluted, then everybody else in the room did too.

An alarm started sounding throughout the frigate as the Eezo core went nearly critical, then every system overloaded.

" _Collision in progress, recommend evasive manoeuvres. Collision in progress, recommend evasive manoeuvres."_ The ship's VI repeated several times. _"Eezo core nearly critical, recommend applying emergency cooling systems."_

Wyn closed his avian eyes and gritted with his beak as they were mere seconds away from the enemy cruiser.

" _Collision imminent. Eezo core damaged beyond re-"_ Was the last thing anybody on the ship ever heard, before it all went dark and a blue pulse enveloped them.

* * *

 **April 3rd, 2257 CE, Pandora**

James cursed his own god under his breath, then proceeded to curse anybody in the high command who thought indiscriminately opening Mass Relays for **two hundred years** straight was a perfect idea! After this, he cursed these aliens, who had the gall to attack the Alliance without past provocation! Then he cursed himself, as it occurred to him that he was allowed to escape just so he could be followed back into this system.

"They have achieved dominance in the void, and have deployed their troops through the use of shuttles. Things haven't been all that easy for them, though. Our fighters retreated from the space battle and are thwarting their landing efforts as much as they can." Said one of Pandora's strategists, as plan was made to resist an alien invasion. "We have already managed to coordinate communications between Pandora's defending army and them."

"Do the aliens not possess any sort of Orbital Insertion Pods?" Asked General Williams.

"Surprisingly, they do not. Some reports say that their guns operate without thermal clips, having to constantly make pauses mid-fire to prevent overheating. Just like our old Eezo gun designs."

"Anyway, what about Captain Loratoris? Is it true that he decided to ram his frigate into the enemy flagship?" Shepard raised his voice.

"Yes, it is confirmed that we have taken down one of their cruisers."

"Good, though I suppose that may just piss the enemy off." Williams stated. "Shepard? We finally meet." The General and the Captain shook hands. "Commander Rynkor." Williams greeted the Yahg who was standing at Shepard's side.

"When are we deploying, General?" Commander Rynkor asked.

"Right now, actually. Y'all are gonna be going to Na'Vi." General Williams answered, he was interrupted as a man in N7 armour entered the room. He took off his helmet, revealing a young-looking man with a dark skin, probably product of African ancestry. "Meet Lieutenant David Anderson, he is one of N7's most promising graduates. He was on shore leave on this planet, about to leave before the aliens hit." Williams added, Anderson saluted.

"Needless to say, shore leave's over for me. Are these the two operatives you told me about, General?" Anderson asked, referring to Shepard and Rynkor.

"Yes… We have heard some gruesome stories from occupied Na'Vi. The local population is being enslaved, and being used to strengthen the enemy's position within the planet. The main objective is to get in contact with the resistance, so we can have a better shot at holding the colony until Alliance Reinforcements arrive." Williams took a sip from his glass of water after talking. "You will be debriefed in detail in about an hour."

"Slavery!?" Rynkor tensed. "This is bad, even by my people's current standards."

"They are gonna pay." Shepard asserted, to which both the General and the Yahg nodded.

* * *

 **2257 CE, Several Weeks Later, Avatar System**

The people were taken out of their homes and rounded up in slave pens.

Slavery ensued, as it always did when Batarians occupied a world. Women, from the Asari-looking species which called themselves "Human", were already being lined up and set up in brothels. Men and those of the "Raloi" bird-people were just given more mundane labors such as clearing up the rubble, helping to set up camp for the Batarian Military and even used as meat shields if the situation demanded it. Lastly, the abominations which called themselves the 'Yahg' were rounded up, starved and tortured to the point of insanity, this was with the purpose of turning them into war beasts to be released into enemy forces. Yahg children and biotic kids of other species were taken to be trained as slave-warriors, the rest were just lined up to be executed.

Occupation was, no doubt, brutal. Resistance was just as fierce. A small settlement was thought to have committed suicide en-masse when they heard news the forces of the Hegemony had arrived, but this was apparently a trick as the people rose from the ground and ambushed the Batarian forces. There were also reports of small platoons surrendering, just for the occupiers to find out too late that they had strapped their own bodies with explosives. The high command of the Hegemony had already been contacted, and from recovered incomplete star charts there were plans for other nearby frontier colonies to be taken and enslaved.

All that aside, the fact that Batarian forces were fighting three different species within the Garden World (Or Moon, to be exact) had unsettling implications. It could perhaps point to a larger interstellar body than it was originally thought, the small fleet which was defending the colony was also not primitive by any means, but was in several ways equal or superior to Batarian designs in terms of advancement. All of this did not point to a minor race.

The Chancellor of the Hegemony decided to apply a forceful approach, not to be intimidated by a small Multi-Species state. The Batarian Military went in to send reinforcements, in the form of the Third Fleet, which in its disposal had a dreadnought along with several cruisers, frigates and some fighters. This fleet alone was enough to crush a minor Terminus Species, a testament to the Hegemony's power and its stance as a well-established partner of the Council in mediating the tense Terminus-Citadel Relations

If all kept going as it was now, Pandora would be taken on a week. Then the invasion of several other Frontier Worlds could continue. Unfortunately for the Hegemony, several miscalculations had been made throughout the campaign. One of them was underestimating the sheer stubbornness of the Humans and their Associate Species to surrender the world, the other was attacking with the pretence that the Systems Alliance was yet another minor unknown interstellar body.

There was also the issue with the Citadel Council, which was very much vocal against the Hegemony's practice of slavery and its violations of several laws followed by the Citadel Space. The one and only reason the Council could tolerate a pariah state within its ranks was because its position near to the Terminus served to keep the peace and balance, and why the Hegemony could comfortably continue its activities across space.

Many in the high halls of the government were constantly questioning whether keeping the Hegemony was more trouble than it was worth, some even suggested that perhaps it was time for the Turian Hierarchy to enforce the Citadel Law on its Batarian partners. This was a diplomatic standoff which was stalled due to the danger that a war with the Hegemony could bring, if it rallied the Terminus behind its back. That, and an enraged Hegemony in itself would prove to be a great threat to galactic security on its own and would likely cause the deaths of millions before it was finally put down.

All of the Hegemony's perceived might was a cold comfort for the Batarians when the Second Fleet, led by Admiral Kastanie Drescher, entered the Avatar System in force.

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **As a useful note, something which I forgot to mention in the first chapter, English is not my native language by any means. If there are any major grammatical or orthographical mistakes, that's the reason, so if you do catch them please do tell me and I will go on to fix them.**

 **With that out of the way... An interesting change, which is a secondary effect of the war with the Batarians, is the fact that there was no surrender order from General Williams on this universe's Shanxi-analogue. The fate of the Williams Family will definitely be quite different. The Human-Turian Relationship will also change greatly due to the story's narrative. The repercussions of both divergences will be explored in due time.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Rising Storm**

* * *

 **Earth, Baghdad, 2257**

Earth was not only one of the Alliance's Core Worlds, it was _the_ Alliance Core World. Its population was slightly over 4 Billion inhabitants. This was after the mass exodus caused by the disaster which had been the Frontier War. Of course, the homeworld composed only a mere fraction of humanity, not reaching 10% of the total population of the race in the stars. Most economy and industry had already been relocated off world. That said, even if a shadow of its former self, it still was a symbol of what humanity had become; one which received billions of Alliance Pounds each year due to the constant tourism from humans curious about the birthplace of their race. Among these tourists, was Jack Harper himself, in what once was Ancient Mesopotamia. Recognized as one of the first places from which human civilization originated from.

Jack Harper wasn't a normal tourist per se. He was among the list of the Alliance's 100 most powerful men, made by Forbes, at the age of 30. Mr. Harper was also the proud Owner of a Fortune 500 company. What was such a man doing in the birthplace of the Human Race had caught the attention of many, though other more controversial news set in before his presence could be noted widely.

"Mr. Harper, I see you brought security with you." Said Ahmed, intently staring at the two men in powered armour.

"A necessary precaution. I see you also brought the secret service with you." Jack Harper took a smoke from his cigar and took a peak at the Alliance's guards as a waiter brought in a large piece of fine steak for him. "Let's cut to the chase, what did you want to discuss?" They were at a table located in the edge of the restaurant, away from others to hear them. That said, Harper discreetly placed a device which projected a mass effect field around them to muffle the sound of their conversation, as a precaution.

"Always straight to business, Chairman." Jack Harper commented. "What do I want to discuss? The one thing you and I know."

"I'm not following, Harper." Said Chairman Ahmed Gonzales of the Alliance as he took a sip from his fine wine.

"Pandora's box has been opened, figuratively and literally speaking." Ahmed tensed at the mention of Pandora. How much did this man know? "You know what I mean. I came here to lend a hand. For humanity's sake."

"Harper, I don't even know how you found out about th-"

"Information is my resource, which is beside the point." Harper took another sip from his cigar, then continued speaking. "These… Batarians? I think they called themselves? Imagine if Cerberus was still around, we would surely have had a proper fleet in place by the time they came."

"Your grandfather's task force? He would've been tried as a war criminal, if it wasn't because of the secrecy. Hell, we did a favour to all by dissolving it. Their involvement in Parnack was unacceptable!"

"A calculated risk. Remember the cache of Prothean ruins in one of Parnack's caverns was almost as extensive as Mars', its people being as close as they were to find the artefact." Jack Harper replied, still keeping a calm but firm tone. "Imagine having a Star Empire led by them as a foe, two hostile Alien Civilizations rather than just the ones in Pandora. We instead have the Yahg as a functional member of our society, an asset of humanity, thanks to Cerberus."

"So you want to bring Cerberus back."

"I am not asking for your permission, but your cooperation. If we help each other, you will have a force willing to push the advancement of humanity by any means necessary. If not… Well."

"Just how far are you willing to go for the sake of Human advancement?"

"We have already lost hundreds of years of potential progress, just imagine what we would have been able to achieve by now if the Ancient World had not fallen. I intend to catch up." Jack Harper answered without losing a pulse.

Ahmed Gonzales stood up and tightened his tie. "Then meet me at Arcturus Station." Then he left Jack, alone to his thoughts. Jack Harper felt a slight smirk forming on his lips as the Chairman left the restaurant. He deactivated the sound-muffling device from under the able, put it back to his pocket, and then called the waiter for another drink.

The meeting between the two prominent figures would never be officially recorded or acknowledged.

* * *

 **Avatar System, Pandora**

All of the people in the camp were shackled and inside their respective cargo vehicles, except for their four-eyed masters. Among the enslaved ones were the Raloi, Yahg and Humans who used to live on this planet before the Batarian attack.

"Can you understand me?" The Batarian asked, receiving nods. A rudimentary translation device had been created between English and Batarian Standard, while other languages such as the Raloi Creole and Krantorian (Most-spoken language in Parnack) were yet to be translated, English served as a good enough basis of communication as it was spoken in most of the Alliance as a Lingua Franca.

"Good. From now on, you are no longer people. You are considered as objects to be bought or sold, slaves." The Batarian said. "It is impossible to take off those collars you have on your neck. If you try or are disobedient, though, they can quickly be activated to either send an electric pulse as a punishment or explode and kill you. It all depends of the gravity of your actions."

"Any question?" He asked, receiving none. "Good, because you are shipping out tomorrow."

A Yahg among the crowd was giving the Batarian a remarkably menacing stare, the slave was tracking his every moves on a similar manner to how a predator stalks its prey. This proved to be too much for the Batarian, who approached the creature with his rifle.

"What are you staring at?" He asked, aiming at the Yahg who didn't even flinch at the sight of the gun pointed at him.

"My master, of course." The Yahg said sarcastically, giving a devious grin. "Rejoice as much as you can in your victory, Batarian, but this is only one battle. By now, the Grand Fleet must be on its way to this system and the core worlds mobilizing. Once our people find out what went on in here, they will call for the blood of each and every person responsible for this." Before the Batarian could shoot the Yahg, a tremble was heard and another younger-looking Batarian entered the room.

"Sergeant! We've got a large enemy fleet in the system! It is launching several pods into this Moon." The younger-looking Batarian called out, then saluted.

"Some sort of kinetic weapon?" The Sergeant asked.

"There are life signs inside the pods. Not weapons, but vehicles. Their military must have found a way to deploy ground forces en-masse through orbital drop. Many are nearby, east of our location."

"Then send forces to the east." The two Batarians walked out the zone, leaving a grinning Yahg behind.

* * *

 **Top Secret: Task Force Cerberus**

" _Cerberus isn't an organization, it is an idea. That idea is not so easily destroyed."_

 _-Illusive Man_

 _Task Force Cerberus was created shortly after the discovery of Parnack to classify, identify and counteract potential threats for humanity. Even though its methods were unorthodox, it provided the UNSA with a valuable asset against any enemies that it faced during its existence. If the UNSA was Humanity's sword, then Cerberus was its dagger. Its founder was Admiral John Harper, who was in charge of the fleet who accidentally discovered Parnack and its people, the Yahg._

 _Unknown to all but the most powerful men and women in the Alliance, was Cerberus' involvement in the annexation of Parnack into Human Space. The official story describes that the Yahg were found just after they had bombed their own planet, making the UNSA send a force to pacify it and give the Yahg an offer to save themselves from extinction in exchange of their integration into the UNSA._

 _What actually occurred was that, five years before that, Cerberus plotted the overthrow of the planet's government. The Yahg nuclear silos were triggered remotely (As a protean data cache was detected in Parnack, and the Yahg were deemed to threatening to have it on their own), after five years of study and infiltration into the planet's ranks. This caused a nuclear war which left the species weakened enough to accept being integrated into Humanity. (Clean-up of any evidence of Cerberus involvement happened afterwards, of course)._

 _Cerberus' role in Turvess, the Raloi Homeworld, was much less brutal. Simply limiting themselves to assassinating those who opposed the integration into human space and slightly guiding the events towards the UNSA's favour._

 _The Organization, currently, was recently re-founded by John Harper's grandson as a response to the Alien attack on Pandora, an Earth-like moon in the Avatar System. Its new leader seems capable and willing to steer Cerberus, and Humankind, into any direction he may desire._


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: After a long Hiatus, caused by the many difficulties at school, I decided it was finally time to pick up the pace and continue this story.**

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Liberation**

* * *

 **Avatar System, 2257**

The Admiral stood at the bridge of the Dreadnought, looking over to the space towards the massive gas giant which Pandora orbited… and Pandora itself, beautiful and with life similar to that of Earth. His mind started to wander around the implications of his species expanding through the stars as they were. Wondering if, in the end, it was the right choice for Humanity to get out of the Solar System.

"We have a visual, Admiral." The man's thought process was interrupted by a feminine Raloi voice.

"Good, then put it on screen." Admiral Kastanie Drescher said, then the image took shape within the holographic screen. It was a large one-kilometre-long vessel, a Dreadnought if one was to judge by its main gun. The behemoth was accompanied by several ships which seemed like Cruisers, Frigates and Fighters.

"No carriers?" Kastanie asked.

"None. They seem to have limited themselves to large weaponry. Their number of fighters doesn't seem to be nearly as high as ours." This was an interesting difference between the combat doctrines of both the invaders which called themselves 'Batarians' and the Systems Alliance. "They are hailing us sir. Do we respond? The Pandorans gave us a translation software for the Alien language, so it may be a good time to test it."

"They are invading sovereign Human space, enslaving our people and expect us to enter dialog as easily?... Eh, let's humour them." Kastanie answered, and soon enough the image of the beautiful and lush Planet which was Pandora, orbited by the Batarian fleet, was replaced by the image of a gross-looking creature. It was humanoid, yes, but four eyed and with a disgusting grey-toned skin. It also had remarkably sharp teeth, probably a product of evolution as a predatory species.

"You have infringed Batarian Space, Human." Actually, this was Systems Alliance Space. These aliens sure had a nerve. "Deactivate your drive cores and surrender to be processed as Prisoners of War." The Batarian said, a toothy smirk and a slightly arrogant tone was heard from his voice. This just gave him a cold laugh from Kastanie.

"Ha! That's a good one! People, cut the comms. I'm getting a lot of bullshit from this channel." The Admiral ordered. "We have already discussed the battle plan. Just execute it." He sat down on his chair.

* * *

 **Sword of Kar'Shan, Batarian Dreadnought**

"The enemy is two Dreadnought-sized vessels, though one of them possesses no main weapon. It is a distinct class from their Dreadnought analogue, the other one." The Batarian tech expert said, after the communications were cut.

"Why would they waste such a large amount of resources on that?" Fleet-Master Ferish Dhag'garr asked.

"Unsure… Wait. They are deploying fighters from the large ship! Their weapons are heating up!"

"Evasive manoeuvres!" The Fleet-Master shouted. "A one-kilometre long support vessel? That's interesting..." Ferish thought to himself. Perhaps, the Hegemony could have something to learn from these beasts after all.

* * *

 **Earth, North American Administrative Unit**

"Hey Tony! Did you hear?" A short, brown-skinned guy asked his taller friend who was holding hands with some girl. The environment in particular was the recess during some high school, ages around 16 to 17.

"Er… What? They made a new tower in Parnack or something?" Tony asked. His friend had always been a little bit infatuated with building projects, and other related fields.

"No! Nothing like that!... You really haven't heard? We are at war." The friend said, activating his omnitool towards a news feed. "The government has told us just today. Apparently this race has attacked Pandora." He then showed the image of a Batarian, Tony's eyes widened, he let go of the girl's hand and quickly got his omnitool to try and contact a number. The call did not go through, he then frowned.

"You okay?" The girl asked.

"He's got family there." Tony's friend stated.

"What he said." Tony answered, then stood up and with a relatively quick pace. His older sister and her husband had gone there as colonists, which didn't bode well. As he took his omnitool, he read the horrid news… Slavery, slaughter of civilians, the mobilisation of the entire Alliance Forces.

He sat down lonely on some corner, remembering the times his sister had told him about wanting to live an 'Exciting life at the frontier colonies'... So stupid, he had warned her several times. He looked at a video feed, in there stood Ahmed Gonzales who was also known as the Chairman of the Alliance, giving a conference.

* * *

 **Pandora's Orbit, Avatar System**

In the vastness of space, the two opposing fleets stood. On one side were the Batarians, invaders and makers of slaves. On the other was Humanity and her allies, the supposed defenders of freedom and target of the Invasion.

A few seconds passed, it all lay breathlessly still… Then the first shot was sent, followed by hundreds more. A spectacle of lights formed as the main canons fired, the lethally beautiful show which was a space fight. As both fleets moved to intercept and destroy each other, one couldn't help but look at the sight of this wondrous annihilation. Both militaries engaged in a sort of brutal dance, in which hundreds of little pieces of debris flew and hundreds of marines lost their lives in the matter of minutes… Yet the void remained as silent as it ever was. Why would it ever care about a couple specks of stardust fighting over some rock?

The Batarian Fleet possessed great power on its own, and it held a strong line from where the main weapons and batteries shot their volleys. But it was, undoubtedly, being slowly pushed back by the relentless assault incurred by the Admiral Kastanie Drescher's Second Fleet. The human fleet, even though clearly following a formation, was a much more flexible. The one Dreadnought in the fleet, accelerating each of its 20 kg slugs at about 1.3% the speed of light, was supported by the additional firepower of the cruisers, the mobility of the frigates and the swarms of fighters deployed from the Carrier. In a way, the fighters coming out of the Carrier were reminiscent to thousands of angered bees coming out of their hive.

Blinding lights, scorching fire, deafening sounds where they could be heard and a deathly silence in the empty void which hit like hard rock to those souls unfortunate enough to reach its grasp. Panic. A sense of organized chaos, a maddening feeling similar to when one stands at a room full of clocks all ticking at different times… The slow but steady way in which the Batarians lost space turned into a full retreat. It all happened so quickly... Then the madness all stopped.

Losses didn't reserve themselves to only ships or money, but also many more lives. But the battle on the void was hardly fought, and valiantly won. In a matter of minutes after the spectacle of death, the ships deployed many of their Marines into the Batarian-occupied human colony. They weren't brought over through shuttles, but thrown violently from space en masse, thanks to the Orbital Insertion Pods.

* * *

 **Arcturus Station, Alliance Space**

"Ladies and Gentlemen. Fellow Alliance citizens; Human, Raloi and Yahg…" The Chairman started, as the room was silent. "For many years, humanity thought they were alone in the universe… Then my species found the Prothean ruins. We thought other intelligent life was long gone, but shortly after we found Raloi and Yahg in the cradle of their homeworlds, then they joined our ranks as brothers and sisters. For almost two centuries of space travel, we thought we were the only space-faring civilization left in the galaxy... It turns out, once again, that we were wrong."

The whole crowd, understandably, gasped as they saw the images of Batarian soldiers slaughtering civilians.

"These people, if we could call them that, these... _Monsters_ call themselves the Batarians and have an interstellar government known to itself as the 'Batarian Hegemony'. They, as a group of people, still practice atrocities such as slavery, mass rape and genocide." Tension was felt in the air, as the images of the occupied zones of Pandora were shown.

"We are taking immediate action to protect our worlds and our people. Every fleet is now on standby, and the Second Fleet has already been sent to liberate the Avatar System." He said. "With the power given to me by the constitution, I request that war is declared by the Systems Alliance, against the Batarian Hegemony. For their crimes against our people to be paid, and for the future of our children to be safeguarded, we must now go on the offensive."

* * *

 **Codex Updated: Human Contributions to Galactic Warfare**

Orbital Insertion

Direct Orbital Insertion is a revolutionary concept of warfare brought over by the humans to the galaxy. It came into place during the Frontier War (2143-2157) as a daring (and desperate) tactic employed by the UNSA Military to retake worlds held by rebel forces. At first, such tactic proved to have a high mortality rate and was deemed as too costly. But war and the constant improvement of Orbital Insertion Pods made it an effective tactic to launch soldiers directly from the ships, into the target planet.

Currently, it is standard for all branches of the Systems Alliance Military to receive training on the use of Orbital Insertion Pods during warfare.

Thermal Clips

Before the Human-Batarian War, the usual way all Eezo-based weapons operated was through the use of many modulated bursts to prevent overheating. While virtually unlimited ammunition was an advantage, the use of slow bursts proved to be cumbersome when fighting. To this, Humans ideated a response. Thermal Clips.

Rather than using the usual heating system of the old weapons, Humans designed a cheap and disposable heat sink to replace it. With none of the slow cooling issues, and a greater liberty of putting rounds down range on a quicker manner, thermal clips were of great aid when fighting against Batarian ground forces during the early and middle stages of the conflict.

Carriers

For Citadel Races, the first thing that came to one's mind when building the largest ship possible was adding to it the longest cannon that could be afforded, hence the creation of a dreadnought. Human focus on mobility, flexibility and the liberal use of fighters has changed this. Rather than adding a massive cannon running across the entire ship, humanity opted to instead use its space to carry both fighter squadrons and supplies. This, effectively turning the vessels into giant support ships and movable base of operation for hundreds of fighters.

Carriers, even though as large as a Dreadnought, conveniently circumvent the Treaty of Farixen set in Citadel Space (which establishes a ratio of 1:3:5 for Associate Species, Council Races and Turians in that order). As such, it has gotten many nervous. With some politicians calling for the Treaty of Farixen to be renewed, in order to include carriers within the parameters. Such a move, though, has not been able to pull through.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Sidelines**

* * *

 **Pandora, 2257**

Alliance Fighters quickly adjusted from Void Combat Mode to Atmospheric Combat Mode as they started the bloody process of cleansing the planet of Batarian Forces. At the same time, thousands of Orbital Insertion Pods fell from the skies, carrying the angry children of Earth, Parnack and Turvess within them.

Meanwhile, there was Balak. The destruction of his ship had forced him to crash-land on the planet, which didn't bode well. His fall was intercepted by an occupying Batarian force, so he was quick to join the Hegemony's activities within Na'Vi and the surrounding territories.

"General Williams and the coming reinforcements have managed to retake most of the mountain range separating the Eastern portion of the Supercontinent with the West one we currently find ourselves in." The strategist said. "It doesn't bode well, they now control most of the planet's food supply. Our food will run out within a week if we keep fighting like this."

"Well, what if we redirect all food from the local population to ourselves? If we don't feed them, we will have a lot more at our disposal." Balak suggested.

"That would just worsen the rebellion, keeping the civilians on a tight leash is already hard enough… If things continue this way, we might have to consider surrender." The strategist stated. "Which might be a viable strategy, reports from the East Side suggest that those who have surrendered are being taken as prisoners... Everyone else is being executed to the last man."

"The Hegemony will get us killed regardless, even if we survive. The Chancellor doesn't like traitors." Balak grimly stated, but still was thoughtful at the possibility of surrender. "Though we do hold a greater chance of survival if we lay off arms…"

Balak walked forward, looking at the field of battle. He stared at rubble of the city, heard the sound of the fighters and looked upon the sight of the falling pods.

"Call off the troops… This battle is lost." Balak stated.

* * *

 **Citadel Tower, 2257**

The Council's hologram flickered as the Salarian with his STG badge stood, just at the side of an Asari matron who just tried to get more comfortable in her chair.

"Good evenings, Spectre T'keni." The Asari Councillor was the first to speak, in greeting. "Agent Awok Solus." She nodded.

"Let's get straight to the point, why is T'keni relevant to this investigation?" The Turian Councillor asked.

"She was involved with a primitive species, these 'Hoomans'." The Salarian mispronounced. "We in the STG believe they might be the reason for the Batarian Hegemony's heightened fleet activity in unclaimed space." Agent Solus stated. "Everything is in the report I handed over, though she is here if you have any questions."

"Well…" Inessa T'keni coughed. "I was on command of the frigate 'Messenger of Athame', when we were ambushed by pirates… Around 240 years ago. Our ship was damaged, we made an emergency FTL jump towards uncharted space."

* * *

 **Messenger of Athame, 2017**

 _"Our core is overheated, we will have to initiate venting procedures! Energy levels are also low. Though we no longer detect any pirate ships in the vicinity." The tech expert said._

 _Inessa gave a deep breath, feeling a little calmer. "Deactivate non-essential systems to save energy, once the core is vented I want out of this system and back to friendly space."_

 _She looked over to the screen, surprised at what she saw…_

* * *

"It was a garden world, orbiting a G-class star. It had a relatively large moon. We quickly detected a lot of debris surrounding the planet, probably product of primitive space flight. There were many artificial satellites, and a small space station. All caught by our sensors." The Spectre described.

* * *

 _"We have detected some large radiation spikes on the Garden World… It seems as if these people are bombing themselves." The Tech Expert said._

 _"Let's forego initiating contact... To spare us the trouble of having another Krogan to deal with." Captain T'keni said. "Hack their satellites, obtain as much information as you can from them. We can at least archive them, if they extinguish themselves."_

* * *

"We eventually went back to Asari Space, all information was handed over to Intelligence Services. The location of the system was lost, I have no idea where it could be anymore." Spectre T'Keni told the council.

"That is where the STG took over. We failed to find the system, even after years of searching. Though we were able to translate several of the species' many languages from the data we were given." Awok Solus said. He then showed images of two Asari-like creatures, which had a skin colour ranging from milky to deep brown and some fur on their heads and faces.

"Both show striking similarities to the Asari and the Quarians." Agent Solus. "This is an image from a probe we were able to adhere to a Batarian frigate, very difficult due to their usual paranoia."

Based on the image, the frigate had crash-landed on a garden world. Batarian soldiers were being gunned down by other Asari-like figures, though they were also accompanied by a large alien and some avian-looking individuals.

"This." Agent Solus zoomed in to one of the Asari-like people. "This is clearly a member of the lost species. What is worrying is that they are accompanied by other races. There's some avian individuals, this one appears to be larger than a Krogan."

"Implications are immense! This could point to a multi-species government apparatus." The Salarian Councillor exclaimed.

"Let's not be ridiculous, we still don't know who we are dealing with." The Turian Councilor answered.

In the coming hours, the Council would attempt to assess the behaviour of this new species. For now, it seemed a good idea to let a potentially aggressive species and the Batarians (which had been a thorn on the council's side since day one) waste their fleet power on each other. The policy would be one of inaction, unless the situation changed otherwise, in a way similar to the past stance on the Geth Rebellions.

* * *

 **Disclosed Location**

Jack Harper took a sip from his cigar, his hand on a datapad. The title within the device read 'Harrier Project'.

The Lancer platform of Assault Rifles was admittedly, unsatisfying. While Hahne-Kedar had made a great breakthrough with the invention of the thermal clip, the weapon they made (which was now standard issue for the alliance) proved to be unreliable, complex, with little stopping power and slightly overpriced. The Alliance needed a new rifle, especially with the advent of the first contact with another spacefaring civilization.

Rather than making a new design from scratch, though, Cerberus did the opposite. There was an already simple, cheaper to produce, reliable and powerful, if old, design in existence. The M-96 Mattock. The company which produced it had to declare bankruptcy recently due to its many unreasonable design choices by the new owner. So Harper had personally gone on and bought the company for a tenth of its former price.

The first challenge which Cerberus had to face with the new rifle was adapting the usage of Thermal Clips into the old platform. Easily done.

Then, its semi-automatic firing mode. Though that was also fixed with ease. The new weapon could go from semiautomatic, to three-round burst and finally fully automatic fire at the user's choice.

The only two issues which needed fixing was how rapidly the gun consumed its disposable heat sinks (The preferable options were reducing the power of the weapon when in Automatic and Three-Round Burst modes, among other modifications to the Mattock), recoil also needed to be reigned in. But it was a start, regardless.

Jack Harper opened another tab on his datapad, looking now at yet another much more complex and much costlier endeavour called "Project Noble". Trying to eventually turn the elite N7 operatives into true Supersoldiers. All the technology for such a feat seen in past Science Fiction stories was already in existence, it just needed to be all integrated. Gene therapy, powered armours, nanites, synthetic implants, biotic amps and enhancements, etc. The idea of Raloi and Human Supersoldiers was already compelling enough for the Alliance, having Yahg ones was terrifying but even more convincing. The Illusive Man, his new code name given by the Government, smiled at the notion.

* * *

 **AN:**

 **Somebody asked what the Council was doing, that's pretty much it. STG spying on everybody, as usual.**

 **As you noticed, this universe's equivalent of the 'Cerberus Harrier' will now be the 'Alliance Harrier'. The M-7 Lancer, since Humanity developed Thermal Clips on their own within this universe, is pretty much this timeline's analogue of ME2 and ME3's own M-8 Avenger.**

 **I also personally opted not to add a whole new SPARTAN-esque Force into the story, it's easier and more ME-ish just to have N7s (And Cerberus Commandoes) on steroids. I bet this will eventually give the Turians some ideas. That said, anybody like the idea of Yahg N7 Supersoldiers?**


	6. Chapter 6 (Edited)

**Chapter 6: The Calm**

* * *

 **ASV Parnack, Alliance Dreadnought, Undisclosed System**

* * *

"What Intel do we have on that Batarian system?" Admiral Kastanie Drescher asked.

"The recovered Star Charts proved to be remarkably useful in finding about various systems, and what the galactic community knows as the 'Traverse'." The other Admiral in the room said. "Zodek is a keypoint in the Hegemony's Space, obviously well protected. This Mass Relay connects what we think are its inner colonies to the outer ones and the Traverse. It's also home to a major refuelling depot. We could cut off access to it. Then occupy the outer worlds."

Kastanie took a sip of coffee, grabbing the datapad and reading the information within it. "Occupy? That would mean we would need to set up supply lines among the various planets, we don't have time for that headache!"

"Then what do you suggest?"

"We just need to make those colonies a no-go." Kastanie answered. "Go into their outer systems. Then quickly destroy anything that could help. Garrisons, industrial and production centres, farms, you get it. Then leave the locals to sort their mess out on their own. We can surely get some of our guys to raid their supply lines, economic routes, freeze all civilian traffic."

"You know…" Said another admiral, an old Yahg with various scars. "That could work."

* * *

 **2021, Mexico**

* * *

"NATO and its allies have finally agreed to a treaty with the Sino-Russian Bloc. The world can finally rest at peace" Said the Reporter. "What many people called 'World War Three' started in the year 2017 after the USA decided to declare war on Syria over its alleged possession of chemical weaponry. This sparked a chain reaction which caused Russia and her allies to join."

"The world now focuses on rebuilding after the brutal four-year-long conflict which provided no clear victors. Many nations around the world, are in the process of rebuilding what has been lost. Though the United States, still focused on the inwards conflict known as the '2nd American Revolution', has had much more trouble in the rebuilding. Several international organisations are providing aid to the American people stuck in the crossfire of the conflict."

Muhammad Salib, an American refugee into Mexico fortunate enough to not have been drafted during the war, turned off the house's TV. "Hell! How did this all even happen?! We Americans used to be a proud people! A grand nation!"

"Just be glad this damn war didn't end in the destruction of the entire planet, the extinction of the human race or some disaster like those fallout games. And that neither you nor your family are up in the north while that war of yours rages." Said José, some Mexican friend of his who was giving him refuge, irritated.

"It's just… How can so much have changed in the matter of four years?"

* * *

 **Turvess, Alliance Space**

* * *

Turvess, the most populated planet in the Systems Alliance at Six Billion people… Simply because it hadn't gone through nuclear war and re-terraforming. It was the home of the Raloi, species which was affectionately referred to by some Humans as 'Space Parrots'.

The Raloi were different to the Yahg and Humans in the sense that their world was already united even before the discovery of Alien life. It wasn't forcefully brought together by an outsider through a re-enactment of the cheap 'War of Worlds' movies like Parnack, or united through fear in the case of Earth. It was in the very nature of the people of Turvess to cooperate, and make their greatest achievements together.

Over a hill, on this great world, sat somebody. An avian being, deep in meditation before one of the planet's many cities. It was rife with flying cars, obelisk-shaped skyscrapers, pyramids and many multicoloured lights.

"Laktras." A voice called behind him, pronouncing his name and snapping the avian out of his reverie. The purple biotic haze enveloping him vanished, and his body met the ground. "The aid of The Order was requested by the Alliance. Our time has come." Laktras' deep emerald-coloured eyes opened.

Biotics were very rare among the Raloi people, but powerful. Even more so than an Asari Matriarch. Any children whose biotic potential was discovered, were sent into The Order of Elyon. To be taken away from family and turned into a caste of warrior-monks since Childhood was seen as a great honour among the Raloi people, even if found as severe or disgusting by other species. It was, after all, a tradition dating back over five thousand years.

Laktras finally got on his feet, turning back to look at his Teacher. The colour of his feathers were of deep black, his eyes red but passive.

"It is true then. Another star civilization, one of invaders." Laktras stated. To this, the mentor nodded.

The two went down into the hill, arriving a monastery of The Order. In the entrance, they were greeted by many soothing songs reminiscent of the old crusader chants and the nasheed from Earth. There were statues of the many gods, among them the Patron God known as Ulisal.

Of course, the music heard in the Monastery was not of human design. Instruments, voices and sounds all composed by the Alien people millennia ago.

Hours later a voidcraft, clearly an Alliance Ship, was parked nearby. The monks, in line, took their passage into it. Off to war, far away from home.

* * *

 **Chronos Station, 2257**

* * *

"I am still debating whether or not placing the Cerberus base of operations in front of a dying star was a good idea." Jack Harper thought out loud, then took a smoke. His eyes weren't glowing blue, as one from another reality would expect. But it was better this way, considering that in another time such glow would come from a reaper artefact.

"It's quite the view, though." Said a butler, who brought Jack more wine and smokes. Then left.

Jack Harper saw the projection of a large ship in front of him. It wasn't Batarian nor was it Human. It wasn't even Prothean, if one were to judge from the carbon dating. It had the shape of a devious cuttlefish.

The archives had warned of some synthetic-organic species called the 'Reapers'. Not much data was found on them, as most was corrupted. What was known, was that they somehow had the power to change the thought patterns of individuals and that these 'Reapers' were responsible for the extinction of the Protheans.

Hearing about it was already disturbing, but finding the suspected remains of one was a surreal experience. A team of scientists was sent to analyse it, change in pattern behaviours did show that these creatures had the capacity to subvert the will of individuals. In reality, those sent into the Organic Dreadnought were lab rats. People who were shortly after put in dungeons to observe change in behaviour and to prevent any security issues.

A new policy was formed. Any ancient technology wouldn't get within a certain radius of the Chronos Station, the Illusive Man was too valuable to have his mind warped by some Cthulhu creature.

While most of the technology couldn't be properly analysed without putting the security at risk, Cerberus was able to detach the creature's main cannon from its body. Remote drones were the only known safe way to interact with anything related to these machines.

It would take months, perhaps years, to reverse-engineer this new weapon. Especially from afar due to the reasonable paranoia one would have regarding these creatures. But the result would nonetheless be worth the wait.

* * *

 **Migrant Fleet, Unclaimed Space**

* * *

"All the data I recovered points to the Batarian Hegemony engaging an undiscovered, possibly major, species." Said Admiral Zel'Kora Vas Seyya.

"Can you confirm the rumours that most of the Batarian Third Fleet didn't come back from Relay 314? With the few remaining ships presenting moderate to critical damage?" Asked one of the other admirals.

"I cannot. But mobilisation of the Hegemony's military does prove to be of concern to the Fleet's security. If our recent poor relations are anything to go by." Zel said. "This new species could too prove to either be another Pan-Galactic threat, or a great opportunity… If they get past the Relay, I propose we attempt to initiate first contact in order to discern their intentions."

* * *

 **Codex Updated: World War Three**

* * *

The Third World War was the global conflict which lasted from the year 2017 through 2021. Even with the limited use of nuclear weapons, it still singlehandedly became the bloodiest conflict in human history. Claiming about 120 million lives from the Middle East, East Asia, the Pacific, Europe, Oceania, the Americas and Africa.

Even though the conflict was not the end of all life as expected, it still proved to be the catalyst which brought great changes to the political landscape of the world. Most of them bloody.

Major changes include:

*A EU-USA split, making a more chaotic world divided between the powers of Russia, America, China and Europe.

*Second American Revolution, which would be finally crushed by the government in 2023.

*Redrawing of many borders in the Middle East.

*The Dollar's hegemony as a world currency is greatly diminished.

* * *

 **Codex Updated: The Solar Renaissance**

* * *

After the disastrous wars in the last decades, the United States of America attempted to regain some of its old prestige by launching a mission into Mars during the year 2030.

The results, were much more positive than expected. Astronaut Muhammad Salib and his partner Carlos Morales discovered a functioning device from an ancient alien civilisation, which contained great deal of information on several technological designs centuries ahead of humanity.

The United States classified this discovery and used the find to make its attempts to dig itself and its people out of an economic depression. This worked very well for five years, until the news about the discovery were leaked in the year 2035.

One of the greatest diplomatic incidents in human history occurred, as all the nations of the world rallied to make one stern warning. Hand over the artefact to the United Nations, or face the possibility of a Fourth World War (And, failing that. Economic sanctions from the entire planet). While a Third world war had already happened, the risk a new one without any allies far outweighed the reward of the possibility of being the sole hoarder of the tech. That and protestors even organised within the nation, with many still bitter after the failed Second American Revolution.

Washington wisely acquiesced. Then a joint Space Agency was formed by the Nations of Earth, the UNSA. Whose first task was to study and apply the technology of the Protheans. This started the era, between the creation of the UNSA and the establishment of the first human colony, known as the 'Solar Renaissance' or the 'Age of Asteroids'.

Earth had suffered through a lot due to the ills of its children's own doing. China's rivers had ran out of water, there was an ongoing hunger crisis in various parts of the planet, energy was getting hard to come by and pollution was reaching its climax. Overpopulation was also taking a toll on planetary resources. If all that wasn't enough, the threat of asteroid impact and now alien invasion loomed dangerously close.

First, there was the water shortage issue which was already causing trouble worldwide. The Prothean archives were surprisingly extensive in this, providing the key to methods of desalination, cleaning and recycling of even the dirtiest of water deposits. All beyond humanity's own advancement.

Second, there was the hunger crisis. Again, this was solved through technology. Methods ranging from vertical farming to the development of new transgenic crops, coupled with already known techniques such as crop rotation and fertilizers. When the soil of Earth ran the danger of losing its mineral wealth which was all necessary for plants, asteroid mining served to create a new rich and fertile soil where it was needed.

Finally, pollution and energy were a closely linked ill. One which was forcefully kept in place by the major economic interests, corporations deemed 'too big to fail' and powerful oil-producing nations such as the Arab Republic, Russia, the United States and Iran. When fusion power, Thorium nuclear plants and many permutations of new energy alternatives aside from fossil fuels were introduced the world was shaken. Many powerful nations and corporate giants tried to supress this, then somebody from Mars leaked all files regarding energy alternatives into the internet. Those smart enough to adopt the technology profitted, other major businesses finally collapsed… This time receiving no bailout.

Regarding pollution, terraforming came a long way, it would be a branch of development which humanity would even expand upon. When finally integrating into the vast galactic community, human terraforming would become one of the most advanced and lucrative businesses both in Citadel and Terminus Space.

Various outposts across the Solar System served as research stations, mining centres and even listening posts to prepare the world in case of an asteroid threat. An extinction-class comet was deviated from Earth during these years by the UNSA. The first of many successes in protecting the planet.

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **I have just found out that apparently the infamous CoD game known as 'Infinite Warfare' has an organisation called the UNSA… I am not sure how to feel regarding this unfortunate coincidence of names.**

 **Also, remember how good ol' Muhammad Salib talked to a Prothean VI in the first chapter? While not in the same level of Vigil, who pretty much spoiled the whole reaper threat to Shepard. Decadence, in its damaged state, was still able to give some details about such threat to humanity. This, as expected, changes everything down the line… It will also open up to many conspiracy theories in the extranet.**

 **Oh, and no. Humanity is not going to annex the Quarians, fix their immune systems and then give the Council a middle finger the size of a Reaper. For those worried. Sure, that concept can be fun, but it is not really what I intend to do here. That and it has already been done in a couple stories within this site.**

 **EDIT: I have decided to make the WW3 and 2021 sections slightly more vague regarding the whole Syrian thing. It is now left up to the reader to consider whether or not was the Syrian Government responsible of the Chemical Attacks in the Upstarts-Verse (Or Covviz-verse. Still haven't found a proper name). This is to prevent any political debate on an otherwise apolitical story.**


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